PMI: Project managers need leadership skills

On the back of PMI's Global Congress 2010 conference, Executive VP and COO, Mark Langley, believes that leadership skills are becoming more important to the role of a project manager.

The PMI Global Congress 2010 took place at the end of February in Melbourne with an overall theme of “innovation in organisations and within project management,” Langley (pictured) told IT Brief. “The key focus was on how project and program managers can innovate both within the existing project and also draw from other disciplines.”

Langley said that more and more, the project manager is being asked to understand and be part of the organisation’s overall strategy. “This has been going on for several years, it isn’t necessarily a new trend, but it’s been increasing recently because of the global financial crisis,” he said.

“It’s becoming more important that they understand and are able to demonstrate a leadership capability beyond just a technical capability to run their projects. One of the reasons this is more critical in 2010 is due to the global financial crisis.”

One area Langley identified that project managers should aim to improve on are their general leadership skills. “They’re less technical and more general leadership skills such as negotiating and communication but they’re becoming more and more critical, not just because of the financial crisis but also because of the global or even transnational nature of an organisation.

“General leadership skills have become critical in being able to execute a project over boarders and multiple cultures.”